Alvino Rey plays "St. Louis Blues" with Stringy the talking steel guitar!
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- Опубликовано: 11 дек 2009
- Alvino Rey is as important to the development of the electric guitar as Les Paul was, but has been criminally uncredited for it--until now. More and more photos, recordings and film clips like these are coming out of the woodwork to show what a genius Alvino was.
This film clip is from 1944 and shows Alvino demonstrating not only his amazing work on the steel guitar, but also his "singing guitar" effect, similar to the Sonovox, manifested in the persona of "Stringy" the talking guitar puppet! Enjoy this and whatever you do, DO NOT TAKE ACID BEFORE VIEWING....we warned you.... 
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Can't believe this is from '44. Defenitely avant-garde sounds for the time.
He started doing that in '39!
Old technology was beyond amazing!
It's unbelievable how modern it sounds! A pioneer. And that was a great band!
That’s because real talent was involved! Today’s musicians are hard pressed for measuring up with the greats from the past!
that is disturbingly awesome.
this was futuristic for its time
Holy crow, that guitar puppet is nightmare material. BTW, they used the "talk box" effect in the Kay Kaiser movie "You'll Find Out" where they call it the Sonovox. It was also used in the Vintage cartoon "Dumbo" for the steam engine. Radio stations also used this effect in their jingles back in the 50's. Pedal steel guitarist Pete Drake also used a "Talk box" a lot.
The sonovox is different tech that what alvino rey used
It was mostly someone back stage with a carbon throat mic and it was modulated to the steel guitar
I grew up listening to KNEW in Spokane Washington and their jingle package utilized Alvino Rey. I can still hear them in my mind. 1963/64. He was a very accomplished steel guitar player.
Alvino Rey introduced the talk box in 1939, just a few years before this clip. Thank you for posting this. Definitely far out for so far back.
April 2022 Guitar Player magazine brought me here. "Stringy the Talking Steel Guitar" puppet now permanently lives rent-free in my nightmares.
Same here re. Guitar Player mag! I'd never even heard of the name Alvino Rey before. And according to said paper, it was Rey's wife Luise who mouthed the words and notes from behind the stage, holding a couple of old speaker-mics on her throat... Incredible stuff and imagination...
And speaking of creepy, it looks like Jeff-"O.B.I.T."-Corey sitting in the director's seat...
@@videocraque5384 Wow, your very observant and equally obscure Twilight Zone reference sent me scrambling to Wikipedia! Bravo!
@@speezer22 Thank you, but the Twilight Zone reference is member Baroque Guitarist's, not mine! :O)
I came here because I found a huge cache of old vintage records being thrown out curbside a block away from my house! Boxes upon boxes of old 78's, LP's, and 45's, from the early 1900's to the 1960's, spanning a large swath of American music history! Thousands of records that I saved from oblivion! It took me about 8 or 9 trips to get them all, fully loading my car! Presumably, an older collector had probably died, and his spouse (or kids?) saw no value in all those historic, era-defining records! I'm in my mid 50's, and a huge music fan, so it was a 'no brainer' for me to snag all those records and store them in my garage (for now)!
There were a few broken 78's, one of which was Alvino Rey and his orchestra on the 'Bluebird' label. His name sounded familiar, so I looked him up on Wikipedia, and lo and behold, he was a fellow electronics enthusiast and Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) operator and FCC licensee! And I had read that he had virtually invented the electric pickup and even a guitar amplifier! And he is from nearby Lakewood, Ohio! And he gigged at the famous 'Rustic Cabin' in New Jersey, where Frank Sinatra got his start, and where I grew up (near there)! There more I read about Alvino Rey, the more fascinated I became! So that's why i'm here checking out his videos. Pretty cool, huh?
Man! What a great deal to find all those records! I like collecting records myself and can not see myself throwing any away.People dont realize what they have and just discard them...I hate that. What did you come across in the 45s and 78s?
Oh man, my father had the same situation, our 80, 90 something year old neighbor, (He's dead now,) had all of these old stag magazines from the 40's to the 60's, he labeled them as "personal papers!" My father regrets not just taking them. Nice AudiophileTubes! Great opportunities.
An old lady at a garage sale was just shutting down....4 big boxes of classic old records...some never even played....I asked how much for the five I picked out....she said "Will you play them or re-sell them? I said "play them"....she gave me all 4 boxes for free !
Wow! You hit the jackpot! People either dont care or dont see the value in old things..... 🏆
you are a hero! thankfully the art will live on
very innovative for sure. kinda creepy and very cheesy but innovative. I like how all the band members are having such a great time and trying so hard not to laugh lol
Not cheesy at all, he is technically the first vocaloid. Very cool and creepy
from wikipedia:
In 1939, Rey used a carbon throat microphone to modulate his electric guitar sound. The mike, developed for military pilots, was worn by Rey's wife Luise, who stood behind a curtain and sang along with the guitar lines. The novel combination was called "Singing Guitar", but was not developed further. The innovation was the first known talk box experiment.[3
This is insanely far ahead of it's time. The guitar puppet is a forerunner of a Pee Wee's Playhouse puppet. The Steel guitar voice box predates Frampton by 30 years.
So here we are, 30 years before Kraftwerk and you see the vocoder in action.
Not a vocoder : it was closer to a talk box but with a throat microphone instead of a tube.
0:43 It's probably just me, but this, along with the other Sonovox uses, sound a lot like those unique TTS voices found in classic Macintosh OSs, like Zarvox, Boing, and whatnot.
0:44 - 0:49 should be sampled, goes hard🔥
Alvino Ray's grandsons founded the Arcade Fire!! Music runs in the family!
God Bless Stringy! Yet another drug casualty taken far too soon. RIP little dude.
These are all great musicians.
Had no idea this gem existed. Thank you.
This video is the greatest sense of joy ive ever felt in my lfie
You're right. During performances, Luise King (Alvino's wife) was backstage using a carbon throat microphone (which was used by military pilots) to get the sounds of Stringy
Wow !!!! Zapp nicked this !!!
Zapp was better
oh my god that talking steel guitar!!!!!!!!
Wow---thanks for posting this! I remember that puppet from WAY back in the 50s when I was a little kid---I distinctly remember him singing, "blue boy..that's what they call me..." I didn't know what that was--and I haven't seen this in about 55 years!
Thanks so much for revealing who and what Stringy was!
Hope you are okay now
@@LMBPlushVids why would they not be
@@Miles._XD they might be dead☹️
@@PuffermanSubs75 LMAOO
@@Miles._XD yeah he dead
Good music to find in the age of anxiety.
MORE clips of Stringy, please!!!
I was looking for those too
Back in the day, there was such clean good old talent, and beautiful it was. Thanks for sharing this masterpiece.
Yes! A magical trip to WW2 days. (1944) Things were hoppin' in the clubs.
Walking with stars in your eyes. Influential. Booming industry. A very large world to spend your life in.
This is what the Krell listened to on Altair IV to pass the time while they were building their underground machine complex. Stringy is the reason the Krell machine ended up being a cube 20 miles (32 km) long on each side and powered by 9,200 thermonuclear reactors operating in tandem.
02:01 Bari player looking genuinely disturbed by "Stringy."
😂
This clip alone not only flat out proves that Sonovox is flat out awesome.....but also flat out weird at the same time.
Makes him pretty flat don’t it
@@elijahcobb4525 Eeeyup.
Back in those days....I think people were more intelligent and more creative! Thats true entertainment right there! Bravo!
There's still plenty of creativity and originality it's just hard to find because the music industry is dominated by shit
Saw alvino rey in 1966 with the king family in Framinham Ma.
This is amazing!!! Especially at this date. Thanks for sharing!
my favorite thing ever! so glad it's back.
David Lindley brought me here, with his mention of Freddie Roulette’s mutual appreciation for Alvino Rey. There’s always soooo much more to know❤️Thank you kind teachers now from beyond, and KoolClipsFromDeke for sharing
Just found out about this little lad. Absolutely in love with this video.
Stringy is Rey's wife stationed off stage using the "talk box" Rey invented.
Here, Rey takes a solo complete with bar crashes and tone knob swells, much like what Speedy West would do later.
He comes back to do "Stringy's" lines out of the lead break.
A lot of what I've heard Rey do previously is usually just "swoops" to accent lines.
the effect has been around since WWII, totally analogue ("speech scrambler"), and as mentioned above, some used a "talkbox" to get a very similar effect...it was basically the "driver" part from the old public address horns, also in the tweeter section of some models of Leslies...a plastic tube ran from the driver into the the musician's mouth, who would form the effects. this was a much cheaper and easier way to do it than the scrambler, which was heavy on vacuum tubes!
That Animatronic Guitar was Pretty ahead of the Time....
Dayum this is ahead of its time!
Fr
RIP Bob Heil 2/28/2024. He credited Alvino Rey as the first one who experimented with what Bob would eventually call the Talk Box.
HOLY MOLY BEYOND AMAZING!!
que coisa linda, isso é mágico!!!
boy was that talking guitar weird
Foo Hoe Vincent Low - It’s created by a carbon filter placed in his wife’s throat as she stands behind a curtain... It operates similarly to later talk boxes. They were used a lot in radio commercials.
Ken heron made a video about this.
It was Ray's wife using a talkbox up to her throat
ipsurvivor why did something happen to her throat
Yup
The Talkbox makes the Pedal Steel Guitar sound more like Backup singers.
Amazing!
"I'm crazy about Alvino Rey.... I like his tone and his style." T-Bone Walker to _Record Changer_, 1947.
Nightmare fuel
thats my great uncle!
+1L0VEMU51C So Win and Will are your cousins then?
dixmontal my second cousins hardly knw them
+1L0VEMU51C Really so are you a McBurney? And do you know Jon Rey? From what a gather he was a real party animal... (for the time) but was a avid fishing and camping in Utah.
Stringy was your great uncle? :-D
Thanks Guitar Player magazine!
0:43 is what we were all looking for
Yes
So cool....Thanks!
Thank you for bringing this baCK!!!!
Hey, if someone has found more footage of the stringy puppet, then can you please share it with me? This puppet may be creepy, but I’m curious where it is now 78 years later and if there is any other footage of him besides this segment from Jam Session. About that, this is very ahead of it’s time and pretty cool.
Despite its weird face, stringy is weirdly cute
@@flamersshowsandmore3864naw
this is so fire
Excellent!
And kids, THAT was what WE called entertainment!
@83survivor Actually, the voice of Stringy was Alvino's wife, Luise King, using a carbon throat microphone. Alvino saw pilots using the mike in planes.
I like how the description says don’t tak ACID before viewing amazing
This microphone and amp system was later refined and used by jingle producers PAMS of Dallas, TX under the trademarked name "Sonovox." Listen to PAMS Series 18 for its use.
03:16 Tapping.. way before Eddie Van Halen and others :) Wow first use of Talk Box and TAPPING too? I wonder where he learned the tapping from. Wow this guy was way ahead of his time :) 1939. Some really psychedelic sounding stuff starting at 3:24 !
It always takes pop music a couple of decades to catch up with the truly innovative stuff. =)
I recently saw an old Roy Rogers movie where Bob Nolan opened a scene by tapping the fingerboard before he started singing. The movie came out sometime around 1940; he sounded like Michael Hedges.
Not only "tapping" but string "pull offs".
Great sounds, but YIKES, that puppet is CREEPY!
Awesome 👍
people were like, ya more of that please
The talking steel guitar was really ahead of its time. This technology was not really utilized again until the pop hits of the 1980's.
Remember seeing Glen Campbell using a talkbox in the sixties.
1970 Butterfly Bleu by Iron Butterfly . Longer and better than in the Gadda Da Vida and they use this effect extensively.
Joe Walsh started using one in the early 70s
Then in 76 the most famous talk box song of all Peter Frampton's Do You Feel Like I Do.
These were big names back then.
@Larry O’Flynn Mr. Blue Sky!
Stringy's such a badass!
what a spiffy drummer to haha
-Devil to the Metal
"Print it. Let's get a close-up of Stringy"
very cool!
Joe Walsh and Peter Frampton used this effect later, but used a different technique. Joe and Peter used a horn driver with a plastic tube that ran to their mouth. Playing the guitar through the driver, they mouthed the words. Rey used a different technique; his wife (one of the King Sisters) was backstage with a carbon microphone. Its variable resistance modulated Rey's guitar sound quite effectively.
You should hear Butterfly Bleu by Iron Butterfly. It is longer and better than In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
f!in luve it man!!!
would love to have this little guy
very good !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And here I thought Joe Walsh invented this😂 No offense, Mr. Walsh. Nothing can stop me from loving your music. Eye opening knowledge.
That puppet is the stuff nightmares are made of...
I got here because of the talk box effect!!!!
I want to hear Stringy on the next Arcade Fire album!
Rockin steel guitar solo and the drummer can shred too. Looks like the grandfather of rock to me
That was swell!
Glenn Johnson Wow!Years before Pete Drake!!This is awesome.
Wow and I thought Speedy Alma Seltzer was wierd. That eye rolling ukulele will now give me nightmares.
Look up Sonovox and see how the magic was done with the puppet "Stringy"!
At 2:31 the singer messed up a bit and mouthed Stringy's line (probably left over from practice).
shake u groove thang guitar u rock my world
i love how the spirit's little limbs just shake around the whole time
and they have a little personality!!! the cackle at the end of the clarinet solo. I'd give it a 10/10 were it not for the fact that there's not a single black person in this band
that said, an all white big band playing st louis blues in the 40s? kinda cringe
I wonder how people were able to see this back then if it wasn't shown in the theater since TVs weren't really common in households yet until the 50's
Sam Feldstein I know why.You see back in the mid 30s,they had jukeboxes but instead of vinyl records it would have film reels.It would basically be a music video “like this one.” How would it work?With a regular jukebox it picks up the records into the player and plays it and when it’s done it puts it back.With this type of jukebox “Panoram” It would have projector grab the reel,which their would be a screen in the Panoram which projected the reel!Far ahead of the time.From what I understand they were called Soundies,and were from the 30s to late 50s-early 60s.
That's interesting, had no idea. Was it 8 mm or 16 mm film? And did it run on a loop like an 8-track?
❤
Pshychedelia before LSD
It's entirely possible he or someone in his band was influenced by LSD at this time.
Hey, Deke -- I got to see Alvino Rey (and Louise King) sometime in the 90s at Scotty's Steel Convention. I was pleasantly surprised since I really don't like the more "pop"-ish big bands. It was so clear to me that Speedy West and even some of the Bob Wills players cropped from him. He did a great version of Floyd's Guitar Blues by Floyd Smith (I think on a frypan-type steel) and used the talk box on Mama Blues. - And he is on the original of Tomorrow Night by Horace Heidt. - Terence McArdle
LET'S NOT GET A CLOSE SHOT OF STRINGY.
Yes! Best comment of the night!
in an interview, Alvino Rey said that he didn't like that the pedal steel guitar (which he created the first patent for in 1939 on the gibson electraharp.) ended up being more of a country instrument instead of a pop music instrument. and all i can think is, "dude, quit bitchin about it and be grateful that your contribution was improved upon and used rather than swept under the rug."
Fr
Stringy won the duel hands down!
great eye.
OMG! I will have dreams!
Reminds me of that twilight zone episode with the ventriloquist who’s dummy comes alive and gets him to rob banks. Or the talking Tina doll episode with Telly Salavas... that doll or whatever it is ... is quite disturbing. But great music
Ah - Peter Drake. What a talent!
J. Hexham Northumberland
Stringy RULES!!!!
this slaps
Is 0:50 where Eiffel 65 got the idea for that awful "I'm Blue (Da Ba Dee)" song in the 90s from?! - Seems too coincidental!!!
yes
And used by French musical grouppe the Daft Punk
stringy is the most frightening thing I've seen in awhile
right